Posted
by
samzenpus
on Monday July 23, 2012 @02:35PM
from the bigger-is-nor-better dept.

First time accepted submitter assertation writes in with a LA Times feature about the booming world population and the strain it puts on the environment and governments. "After remaining stable for most of human history, the world's population has exploded over the last two centuries. The boom is not over: The biggest generation in history is just entering its childbearing years. The coming wave will reshape the planet, and the impact will be greatest in the poorest, most unstable countries."

The presenter does a decent job of showing how religion has very little to do with amount of children per woman. Bear in mind, the overpopulation crowd (primarily left leaning) blame religion (another target of the left leaning in society) for a supposed population problem.

The issue with blaming religion is brought to light in the TED talk, and also the fallacy of overpopulation theories overall.All in all, the video is well worth watching, I must say.

Your question is too vague. Do you mean what percentage of people fall within the top 1% of personal wealth? That doesn't have a 1:1 correlation with population.

"top 1%" requires definition of what the 1% applies to specifically, and how it's measured.

For example, suppose you add up all the total wealth, then take 1% of that and figure out how many people are in that category? You will come out with a different number than if you take the wealthiest person and the poorest person, and take 1% of that range and figure out how many people fall in that 1%.

New Orleans should never have happened IMHO. Much of it is below sea level. Effectively, it's a giant bowl. The pumps are constantly moving water out 24/7. That's a lot of energy being used on a daily bases just to keep it from flooding.

Not the same situation. While you can also question the wisdom of "reclaiming land from the sea" as the Dutch have done, they did it in modern times using dikes. Further, the Dutch have a stable landmass with bedrock underneath. New Orleans literally goes away over time without fresh annual flooding, as it's nothing but delta silt built up over time with no bedrock underneath. People can't live with flooding, but without flooding, the landmass eventually goes away. New Orleans may be the single worst place to build a city in North America. And nothing we do can change that.

The birth rate decline in western nations correlates best with raising educations. If this is the true cause, improving educations in third world nations is the solution. A more educated populace will decide on their own that having so many children is a bad idea.